Recycling benefits people, profits and planet


A new report from Planet Ark, titled All Sorted: Answering the Big Recycling Questions and commissioned for National Recycling Week, includes the top mistakes and main contaminants that confuse people when it comes to recycling.

Clarence Valley Council waste education officer, Suzanne Lynch, said 115 councils across Australia were surveyed and asked to identify the three most common recycling mistakes made by their residents.

Nine out of 10 councils said plastic bags and soft plastics in the recycling bin was one of the most common mistakes made by their residents; nearly half of councils reported residents mistakenly placing kerbside recyclables into the general waste bin; and food contamination of recyclables was the third most common mistake, highlighted by 23% of councils.

“Each of us play an important role, as our recycling habits influence the success of the whole recycling system,” Ms Lynch said. “It’s important to get it right, not just for the planet, as recycling benefits business and people too. “The process of recycling and composting creates more jobs than incineration and landfill, with 9.2 jobs in recycling for every 2.8 jobs in landfill.”

Ms Lynch said recycling reduced, and could even eliminate, the need to extract raw materials, saving limited natural resources. “For example, 75% of all of the aluminium ever produced is still in use today because it can be recycled infinitely,” she said.

“Recycling has never been easier in the Clarence with a large 360 litre yellow recycling bin for glass, plastic, paper, cardboard, aluminium and steel; and a weekly organics collection of all food waste.

“For all those tricky household items that don’t go in your household bins like batteries, smoke detectors, gas bottles, e-waste, automotive and cooking oil, two new community recycling centres in Grafton and Maclean will receive these at no charge.

For more information please visit www.clarence.nsw.gov.au “I encourage people to ‘own’ this National Recycling Week and make a pledge to recycle one more item than you did last week.”